The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-16
RESTORING FERTILITY.
The Most Certain and Rapid Means Of I'm
proYing Exhausted Land.

The Most Certain and Rapid Means OF Inn
proving Exhausted Land.
Every farmer knows the value OF q
grass and clover sod for blowing in as
manure. We have been educated to
this knowledge from our first acquain-
lance with the work of a farm. Sod IS
always considered as the natural ground
for crop of corn. and, where corn is
not grown, wheat is sown on sod
TUNED under in the summer and left to
decay until seeding time. And not
only practice but science teaches us this.
The results Of hundreds of experiments
by the most careful experimenters
in the field and in the laboratory all 60
to prove the truth and soundnesS of the
common practice.
Grass is an exhaustive crop and
clover is still more so. While clover is
not grass. vet as it takes the place of
grass in the actual work of farm, and
is to all intents and purposes grown
for the same object as grass is, we will
here consider it in the light of a grass
and merely distinguish it by name. A
crop of 1900 pounds timothy hay
contains 60 pounds of nitrogen and
800 pounds of mineral matter;
1000 pounds of clover contains about
$50 pounds of nitrogen and $50
pounds of mineral matter, and if.
as is quite commonly done, three or
four crops of hay are taken from one
seeding, it is easily seen that large
amount Of plant food is drawn from the
soil, and vet the soil is improved in
character BIZ this growth, and we find
it far more easy to grow large crops Of
the most valuable grain after few
years Of grass or clover and the blowing
in of the sod. than it was previously.
How then is this improvement brought
about and whence is this accretion of
fertility drawn?
When we ask ourselves this question,
and seek a satisfactory reply, we are
met by one of the unsolved problems of
agriculture and a variety of suppose
tons which have been offered to ac-
count for the facts, but which do not
satisfy US. Some careful and very COM
petent invest gators believe that large
portion of the nitrogen is drawn from
the atmosphere, which contains seven
ty-nine per cent. of its bulk of it. 9th
crs believe that the roots of grass, and
of clover especially, draw a large guam
tity of their nitrogen from the soil,
where it has existed in an inert form in
the decayed organic matter, as yet not
fully decOmposed, but remaining in the
form of insoluble hu mus until it is
attacked by these roots. Others
believe that these crops pro-
duce very large quantity
of roots and of leaves and stems
which die and decay and never become
apparent to us excepting in some con-
spicuous instances, and that this or
ganic matter. decaying constantly in
the moist, warm soil as it gives place to
successive growths, forms a nucleus or
seed bed for the myriads of nitrifying
germs which draw nitrogen from the air
and o1idize it, and thus produce large
quantity of nitric acid. Necessarily
this decomposition of organic matter
has an active result upon the mineral
elements of the soil and renders them
soluble by separating the silica from
them. Perhaps all these results are
going en in the soil together, and thus
the remarkable effects of a crop of |
clover or of grass are explained ration
a1lu op1 81 n+oril,-
The roots and stubble of grass and
clover contain a large quantity of or
ganic matter as shown in the following
table: